whereagles, on Aug 19 2006, 12:16 PM, said:
After the 2
♥ opening, I'd be happy to reach the
small slam

And without the 2H opening, I wouldn't want to be in a grand! The way some people open 2H nowdays, I'm not sure you want to be in the grand anyway against an average team or in an IMP pairs game. My guess is that getting to 6C will be a pickup and also would avoid the embarrassment of going down in 7C against a piece of junk 2H opener when the other table is in 3NT or 5C or defending 5Dx.
Incidentally, if I bid more than 2S with the North hand, my partners would stop balancing. Sure, I would bid more than 2S when advancing a direct takeout double, but partner can be just not selling out to 2H with heart shortness. Yes, I know in theory that the opponents should have already bid 3H in that case, but the opponents can't always be trusted. Likewise, I don't think that 3NT is an underbid either. Partner could have about 19 and if parnter's hand is diamond oriented, then 3NT could be quite high enough.
Frankly, I think that both partners bid reasonably here and if the worst result they ever get is to miss a 90% grand slam with 30 highs, they're going to win a lot.
I tend to lead fourth best - as opposed to the best suit, the second best suit, or the third best suit for our side